Shroud of Turin reproduced

Italian scientist Luigi Garlaschelli recreated the Shroud of Turin, supporting his claim that the artifact is a fake and not the cloth that laid on the body of Jesus Christ before his burial. Believers claim that the image on the cloth is the miraculous Holy Face of Jesus. Garlaschelli will present his research and the, er, Shroud of Luigi, at the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims on the Paranormal's conference. This whole thing makes me want a Shroud of Turin blanket. I didn't find one of those, but this golf towel is kinda nifty! Anyway, from CNN:

 Cnn 2009 World Europe 10 07 Italy.Turin.Shroud Art.ShroudreproLuigi Garlaschelli created a copy of the shroud by wrapping a specially woven cloth over one of his students, painting it with pigment, baking it in an oven (which he called a "shroud machine") for several hours, then washing it…

"Basically the Shroud of Turin has some strange properties and characteristics that they say cannot be reproduced by human hands," he told CNN by phone from Italy, where he is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia.

"For example, the image is superficial and has no pigment, it looks so lifelike and so on, and therefore they say it cannot have been done by an artist."
His research shows the pigment may simply have worn off the cloth over the centuries since it was first "discovered" in 1355, but impurities in the pigment etched an image into the fibers of the cloth, leaving behind the ghostly picture that remains today.

"The procedure is very simple. The artist took this sheet and put it over one of his assistants," he said.

"Scientist re-creates Turin Shroud to show it's fake"